The Measures of Christian Obedience, Book 4 · Chapter 8
CHAP. VIII. Of Sins consistent through the second Cause of an innocent Involuntariness, viz. Inconsideration.
The CONTENTS.
Consideration is necessary to choice. Some sins are inconsiderate. Three innocent causes of inconsideration. 1. Suddenness and surprize of opportunity. An account of this. The involuntariness of it. Slips upon it are consistent. 2. Weariness of our thinking powers or understandings. An account of this; and of its involuntariness. The consistence of our Transgressions by reason of it. 3. Discomposure or disturbance of them. An account of this. The causes of it are Drunkenness, or a strong Passion. Drunkenness is always our own fault. Our Passions grow strong in us sometimes by our own indulgence, and then they are our damning sin, and we must suffer for the evil that we commit under them: sometimes through the suddenness, and greatness of outward objects; and then they are pardonable, and our inconsiderate slips upon them are excusable. The Passions which have Good for their object, as Love, Desire, &c. cannot by any force of outward objects be so suddenly forced upon us. But the Passions which have Evil, as Grief, Anger, and Fear especially, often are. The reason of this difference. Inconsideration upon the latter excusable, but not upon the former. This difference made by our Saviour in a case where both were criminal. Excusable slips upon discomposure of our thinking powers, are such as proceed from an unwill'd sudden Grief or Anger, but especially from a sudden Fear. No fear is involuntary but what is sudden; and sins upon deliberate fear are damning; but upon unwill'd sudden Fear, Grief, or Anger, consistent with Salvation. Cautions about inconsiderate sins to prevent false confidence. No sin is innocently inconsiderate: 1. Where we have time and an undisturbed understanding. 2. Where the sin is mischievous, or greatly criminal. 3. When we do not strive against it. We must endeavour against all involuntary Failings, though we cannot resolve against them. 4. When we are not sorry after we have committed it, nor beg pardon for it. 5. When it is committed with observation. A summary Repetition of this fourth Book.
HAving in the foregoing Chapters discoursed largely of the first cause of an innocent Involuntariness, viz. Ignorance of our Duty or want of a general Knowledge, I proceed now to the second, viz. want of particular Animadvertence and Consideration of what we know, which is Inconsiderateness. And this is the second way of rendring our Transgressions pardonably involuntary, which I proposed above; namely, when in any sinful action we do not bethink our selves, and consider of its sinfulness.
It is not all knowledge of our Duty that renders every particular sin against it chosen and voluntary. For a knowledge that is only general, and at such time as the thing occurs to our thoughts, and we are asked the Question, will not do: but as all our choice is of particular actions, so must our knowledge be likewise. Before we can be said to chuse a particular action, we must see and know it particularly; and if we act it without thinking, we act it also without chusing, seeing all choice is upon sight and knowledge of what is chosen.
But now this is the case in several of our Transgressions, they slide from us without this actual application of our minds to them. For we do not think and consider of the evil of them when we commit them; and so their sinfulness being unseen, it is withal unchosen. They are of the number of our involuntary sins, and such as, implying nothing of our own will, shall have nothing of Gods anger, who will not punish, but graciously bear with them.
And these slips stealing from us without our considering and thinking on them, or adverting in the application of our minds to them; are called by these several names, which are all of the same signification, viz. sins of inadvertency, incogitancy, and inconsideration. Which because they are such as, through the weakness of our Natures, we are continually subject to, and liable daily to incur, are stiled in another word sins of daily incursion.
Now as for this second sort of sins, our inconsiderate Transgressions, they may steal from us involuntarily and innocently upon as many grounds, as there may be innocent causes of inconsiderate actions. And as for the unwill'd, and therefore innocent causes of inconsideration, they are reducible to these three.
1. Suddenness and surprize of Opportunity.
2. Weariness, and
3. Discomposure and disturbance of our thinking powers wherewith we should consider.
1. The first cause of inconsideration in our Actions, whereupon we venture upon some sin without thinking or considering of it, is the suddenness of the Opportunity, and the surprize of Temptation. It falls out unexpectedly, and stays for us at such time as our minds are otherwise employ'd; and so we act it without considering, because it lyes ready and prepared for us just then, when we have no leisure for thinking and consideration. And the first beginnings of a sinful Passion, whether of Anger, of Envy, &c. and the unadvised slips of the Tongue in rash censuring, in uncharitable speaking, in indeliberate backbiting, and the like generally enter this way. For they come upon us in the throng of Conversation, and opportunities are offered for them before we foresee them; and so we spring out indeliberately to act and exert them.
And this inconsideration is such as we cannot avoid. For we have no freedom of acting where we want a freedom of thinking, seeing we cannot chuse without consideration. But as for these inconsiderate slips, they steal from us before we can bethink our selves, and stay not for our consideration, but run before it. For our operative Powers, when they are spurr'd on by any thing of an inward desire, or of a remaining corrupt inclination, (and who, as long as he lives here, can be wholly free from it?) are ready of themselves to spring out into Action and Practice upon the first offer of Temptation, and stand in need of reason and consideration, not to raise and excite, but to restrain and repress them. So that upon the offer of a fit occasion we act many times amiss before we are aware; and we cannot help it, because we cannot deliberate and consider of it.
But as these slips of surprize are such as we cannot avoid, so are they such withal wherefore God will not exact a severe account of us. He will not punish but pity us for them, and in great mercy dispense with them.
For they are necessarily incident to all men; they have been incurr'd by his best servants, but were never looked upon to be of that provoking nature as to put them out of his favour, or to interrupt their state of salvation and acceptance. Just Noah through his ignorance of the strength of Wine was surprized into one sin; for he was drunken before he was aware, or could discern what effects the fruits of his new Vineyard would have upon him. Noah drank wine, says Moses, and was drunken, Gen. 9.21. But this was perfectly a mixture of surprize and ignorance, for his wits had left him before he was aware, and before he ever knew that the Wine which he drunk would drive them from him. For it was at his first planting of a Vineyard, before he understood what measure of it would cause intoxication. He began, says the Text, to be a Husbandman, and he planted a Vineyard, and he drank of the wine of his new Vineyard, and was drunken, v. 20 21. The great Apostle Paul himself was guilty of one sudden slip towards Ananias the High Priest, who, whilst his mind was intent upon his Speech which he was making in his own defence, commanded him to be smitten on the face. Upon which unexpected occasion he was surprized into a sudden anger, and into an unadvised irreverence. God shall smite thee, thou whited wall, says he presently to him again, for sittest thou to judge me according to the Law, and yet commandest me to be smitten contrary to the Law? Act. 23.1, 2, 3. But as soon as ever he dad done, he retracts his words, and confesses that his Speech was evil; but yet he pleads that it was pardonable, as being altogether unconsidered through the suddenness of the occasion. I wist not, Brethren, says he, that he was the High Priest, I did not think of that; for if I had I should not have spoke so disrespectfully to him, it being thus written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy people, v. 4, 5.
2. Another innocent cause of inconsideration, whereby we venture upon several actions without thinking of their sinfulness, is the natural weariness of our faculties or understandings. It is the very frame of our Natures, and we cannot help it, for our minds to be tired out by being held long and constantly to one thing. We find it is so with us in all Studies whatsoever; for let our thoughts be employed upon what we will, they cannot be kept at stretch upon it for a long time together, but either we must draw them off and relieve them, or else they will flag and fail of themselves.
But now as for some sins, they are a continued temptation. They do not soon come upon us, and go off as soon again; but they lye before us and stick to us, and for a long time are still alluring and solliciting us. And here although our minds can consider of them, and watch against them for some time; yet by reason of their long abode with us they wax faint at last, and grow weary and forgetful: and then the temptation gets ground, and enters when we are not aware, and in some thing we prove unadvised, and yield to it because we cannot hold out longer to consider of such things as should guard and preserve us from it. Thus in afflictions and sickness, for instance, by the uneasiness of his flesh, and the hardness of his condition, a man is tempted to fret and murmure, and to be peevish and repining. But for some considerable time he stands upon his guard, and his thoughts are in readiness; and so long he represses his passion and keeps it under: so that although the sin be importunately offered, it is not embraced. And if the temptation would pass off whilst he stands thus prepared to watch against it, all were well, and his Vertue would remain in safety. But on the contrary it is lasting and permanent, it sticks to him, and incessantly importunes him, and so proves a continual snare to him. And now if his mind would endure to be held always upon the stretch, and in a continued watchfulness against it, all were well, and he would keep back from it still. But alas! his Faculties, after a long toil, grow weary; and his Powers of thinking, being constantly imploy'd, are spent and disabled; and then his watchfulness begins to impair, and his thoughts by degrees to unbend; and whilst he becomes less attent, and less careful to oppose the Temptation, it wins ground, and prevails upon him when he is not aware: so that although he could not at first, yet he is surprized at last into some impatient thought, or peevish behaviour. And the case is the same in a continued provocation to Anger, Lust, or other sins.
Now this weariness, which renders us thus inconsiderate, is no matter of our own chusing; it is the very frame of our Nature, and not the effect of our will; so that we must submit to it, and we cannot help it. For the Soul in thinking and understanding uses bodily powers, and they by exercise are spent and wasted, weakned and enfeebled: and therefore when by a fixt watchfulness and consideration of one thing, they have been kept long attent, they naturally grow weak and weary, and there is no avoiding it.
And since we cannot help it, God will never exact of us that we should; but when he comes to judge us for those slips, which were inconsiderate upon this account, he will not punish, but in great mercy pardon and bear with us.
And this we find that he has always done. For his best Servants have been wearied into slips of this nature, and yet they have not put them out of a state of Grace, nor made a breach in God's acceptance; but he has own'd and rewarded them as his faithful Servants still.
Job was a man patient to a Proverb, and one to whom, by the testimony of God himself there was none equal in the whole earth; a perfect and an upright man, one who feared God, and eschewed evil, Job 1.8. But yet this man of admirable Constancy and Patience, was wearied out of his watchfulness by a tedious Tryal of Afflictions, and in that time of his unadvisedness utter'd many things impatiently with his lips. For after he had watched sore by himself, and kept silence, continuing still his noble Patience when his Friends came to pity him, and stood amazed at his condition for seven days and seven nights together: at last being over-charged with grief, and wearied off from his guard against it, he bursts out into a rash and foolish cursing of the day of his birth, and into many repining Questions and fretful Answers, Job 2.12, 13 and Chap. 3. But yet notwithstanding all these, and several other fretful expressions of a tired mind, God owns him for his dear Servant still, and honours him in the end with a most noble mark of a particular affection, by accepting of his Sacrifice for his Friends, when he would not accept of it from themselves, Job 42.8.
David, the man after Gods own heart, when in great fear he flyes from Saul, and after several escapes made from one place to another, could not either weary or avoid him; being tired out of all patience and composure at last, begins sinfully to call in question the truth of Gods promise. For although Samuel had a1 Sam. 16.13.come from God to anoint him King, and had thereby in Gods Name assured him of the Crown: yet, after a long confidence in Gods Faithfulness, he begins at last in the tiredness of his spirit to doubt within himself whether God would be as good as his word, and to say in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul, 1 Sam. 27.1. which he did, as he himself gives the account of it, only because the weariness of his mind, through his continued and repeated dangers, had made him hasty and inconsiderate. I said in my haste, saith he, I am cut off from before thine eyes; referring in all likelihood to this very case, Psal. 31.22.
Good Asaph, by the continuance of his troubles, is wearied into a like offence. For although he guarded his spirit well at the beginning, and for some time; yet after he had laboured long under his affliction, he breaks out at last in the discomposure of his soul into these repining thoughts and distrustful expostulations: Will the Lord cast off for ever, and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever, and doth his promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious, and hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Psal. 77.7, 8, 9. But when once he had got liberty to recollect his thoughts, and to recover again his former guard; he doth not any longer give way to these distrustful surmises, but immediately suppresses and corrects them. Then I said, as he goes on, this is mine own infirmity, v. 10
3. A third innocent Cause of inconsideration in our Actions, is the discomposure and disturbance of our thinking powers, which should consider of them.
Our souls, as I said, are united to our bodies, and make use of their powers in their most spiritual actions of Knowledge and Apprehension. And therefore upon any ruffling discomposure in our bodily spirits, our thoughts are ruffled and discomposed likewise. They see nothing clearly at such times, nor have any distinct notices of things; but are blunder'd and confused even as our bodily powers themselves are.
Now that which thus discomposes our bodily spirits, so as that our souls can see and consider of nothing through their disorder, is either strong Drink, or a strong Passion. For so much is all exercise of reason and consideration disturbed and hindred by these, that of men in drink or in a high passion, it is usually said, that they are not themselves, and that they have not their wits about them.
But although either Wine or any violent passion are sufficient causes of disturbance in our spirits, and of discomposure in our thinking powers, which unfit us to consider of what we do during such time as we are disturbed by them; yet are not both of them innocent, and able to excuse those inconsiderate slips which we commit by reason of them. For drunkenness is always our own fault, and if we sin unadvisedly through its discomposure, we shall certainly suffer punishment, because that is a discomposure of our own seeking.
As for our passions indeed, they are causes of ambiguous quality. For sometimes they grow strong in us by our own fault. Either we feed them, or we indulge them; we suggest such things to them as will foment them, or we permit them to grow unruly of themselves, without checking and repressing of them, as we might and should, were we so minded. And when our passions are thus indulged, and the violence of them is of our own chusing; they are themselves our sin, and so cannot plead our excuse and vindication.
But then at other times they are forced upon us by the power and suddenness of outward objects, whether we will or no. For we hate them, and are afraid of them; and if we were aware we would stand upon our guard, and call in against them all the Aids of Reason and Religion to preserve us from being too much disturbed by them. But God's Providence casts them upon us on the sudden, so that we do not see them before they come, nor can consider aforehand to prevent and avoid them. And when once they are come, by their very natural force in disturbing of our Spirits, they take away from us all power of consideration. So that they are unconsidered in themselves, and unconsidered in their effects, and therefore they are involuntary all the way. And when our passions are made violent this way, viz. by being raised in us, not by any thing of our own search or indulgence, but by the timing of God's Providence, and by the suddenness and greatness of outward objects, they are pardonable in themselves, and will excuse our inconsiderate transgressions. Those slips which we incur under them are prepared for pardon, because we did not seek, nor could avoid them.
Thus then our innocent Discomposures which unfit us for consideration, are those only which are caused in us by strong passions not of our own indulging. The passion which begets them must enter against our wills, through the greatness and suddenness of outward objects; it must be forced upon us suddenly and by surprize, and then we cannot refuse it, or the discomposure which ensues upon it, because we have no time beforehand wherein to consider how to prevent it.
Now it is not every passion which the power of outward objects can force upon us on such a sudden. For love, desire, and all those passions which have good for their object, are more under our own Command, and spring up in us more gradually. They arrive not to such a discomposing pitch in a moment, but they require more time, and go on more leisurely; and in all the intermedial steps they are subject to our own power, so that we may arrest them, if we please, before they have got so far. And therefore all the inconsideration which they effect in us is more or less wilful, and a matter of our own choice, because it proceeds from our own permission and indulgence.
But then as for other passions of grief, anger, and fear especially, which have evil for their object; if the opportunity be sudden, and the object great enough, they may be raised in us to such a degree, as to amaze and confound us in a moment. A man may be in such a fright upon the sudden, as not to know what he doth, as we see by daily experience; and the case is the same in the others likewise. And the reason of this difference between these passions and the former is this, because the suffering of evil is far more repugnant to self-preservation and self-love, which are the fundamental principle of all our passions, than the absence of good. For if we sit without that good which would move our love and desire, we are still where we were: but if we fall under that evil, which excites our fear, we are made miserable, and much the worse: that is only a denial of a farther delight; but this is a real deprivation, and a step towards destruction. And since our self-love and self-preservation are so much more nearly concerned in the suffering of evil, than in the absence of good; our passions, which are only their several aspects and expressions, must needs be more quick and violent in that than they are in this, and the discomposure upon them will be so likewise.
This difference there is betwixt our inconsiderateness upon the violent fears of evil, and upon our violent desires and pursuit of good. Which is observed by our Saviour in an instance where both were criminal; in which notwithstanding the discomposure upon the fears of evil, being fit to plead the more excuse, made the transgression that ensued upon it to be a lesser sin. For both the Jews and Pilate concurred in the grievous sin of shedding innocent blood when they crucified and murthered him. In which wicked action, that which moved them was bMat. 27.18.envy and malice, but that which prevailed with him, was his fear of their calumnies, and of the anger of the Roman Emperour. For in his own heart he was minded to cJohn. 18 38, 39.release him, being convinced of his innocence, and dJohn 19 8.afraid to have any hand in the Blood of one who called himself the Son of God. But because he called himself a King, which his own eJohn …8 33.mind could not but suggest to him, as the fJohn 19.12, 13.Rabble did afterwards, was a Title whereof the Emperour would be extremely jealous: therefore he gives him up to their will, fearing lest, if he did not, he should be traduced as no Friend to that most jealous Prince Tiberius Caesar. And when Christ himself comes to pass Judgment in comparison of his offence and theirs, He who delivered me unto thee, saith he, hath the greater sin, Joh. 19.11.
Those discomposures then of our knowing Faculties, which are innocent, and fit to excuse our inconsiderate slips which proceed from them; are such as spring from an unwill'd sudden grief, or anger, but especially from an unwill'd sudden fear.
To make it unwill'd, I say, it must be sudden; for if our fear it self, which is a passion that amazes more than all the rest, doth not presently effect any thing, but stays some considerable time, and reigns long before it produces any sinful action: then it is a matter of our own choice, being it is a fear of our own indulging. We give it room and entertainment, we feed it, or give way to it; and that makes our fear to become our sin, which can never serve for our vindication.
For a true Christian must be as bold as a Lyon, and fear nothing so much as the disobedience of his God, and the breach of his Duty. But as for other things, which men use to be afraid of, whether they be loss of Fame, of Estate, of Friends, of Liberty, or even of Life it self; though he may justly fear and avoid them, when he can innocently; yet if they are the burden of the Cross imposed upon the doing of his Duty, he must chearfully gMat. 16.24 25. and Chap. 10. ver. 37.take it up, and not fear and fly from, but overlook and contemn them. For God will make us an abundant Recompence in the next World, for any thing which we part with for his sake in this. And therefore he indispensably requires us, as in all reason he very well may, not to fear and shrink from the loss of any thing, even of life it self, when he calls for it; but in Faith of his Promises, and in hope of his Rewards, most couragiously to undergo it. Persecutions and Dangers, which are the great objects of our fears, are the chiefest tryals of our obedience, for which reason they are so often in Scripture called h2 Pet. 2.11. 1 Cor. 10.13. Jam. 1.2, 3.Temptations; and therefore their business is to evidence how much we will part with for obedience, but by no means to excuse us when we disobey. But in relation to them Christs command is this: Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but fear him who can cast both body and soul into Hell, Mat. 10.28. And if we suffer our fears of them to chase us away from the owning of his Religion, or to drive us from the performance of his Will; his Sentence against us is plain and peremptory: Whosoever is ashamed of me and my words, and dare not owne them, although it be in a Generation that is sinful and adulterous, wherein he will be sure to suffer for the profession of them; of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with his holy Angels, Mark 8.38.
As for all Fear then which drives us from our Duty, it is our fault; and if we stand and pause upon it, and have time to deliberate and arm our selves against it; if we fear still, our fear is our wilful and deadly sin, and doth not excuse, but deserve our condemnation. And such was the fear of Peter that made him deny his Lord, which cost him so many penitential tears to wash off the stain of it, Mat. 26.75. And in an instance of a smaller crime, such was the indulged fear of Abraham, when, to save his own life, he exposed his wife Sarah, and Pharaoh King of Egypt to the danger of an adulterous mixture, Gen. 12.11, 12, 13, 15, &c. Concerning which action St Chrysostome thus discourses: iforeign. And that because foreign. Chrysost. Homil. foreign. in Gen. c. 12. v. 12, 13. p. 259, 260. Tom. 1. Ed. Savil.He participates in the Adultery of his wife, and doth in a manner minister to the Adulterer unto his wife's reproach, only that he himself may avoid a present death. And this he did, because his mind was still subject to the Tyranny of death, the sting of it was not yet taken out, nor his fears of it subdued; but the face of it was ghastly and terrible above his courage. And a like sinful practice upon a deliberate fear we meet with in Isaac in the same case, who was a true Child of Abraham in his infirmities, as well as in his piety, Gen. 26.7.
But that Fear, or Grief, or Anger which makes excusable and innocent discomposure, must be sudden and surprizing. It must seize on us suddenly, and disturb our thinking powers unawares, and carry us on to transgress before we can recover our selves from the discomposure. And when it doth so, it is forced upon us, and is not chosen by us; we are hurried into it without our own consent, and cast upon it whether we will or no: and since the inconsideration it self is thus involuntary, the slips upon it are excusable, and such as God will not severely punish, but has been always prone to pardon and dispense with.
David, the man after Gods own heart, when he received the sad … of Absoloms being slain, was suddenly transported into a most impatient and indecent height of sorrow, 2 Sam. 18.33. and Chap. 19. v. 2, 4.
Samuel who was a person so dear to God, that if he could be kJer. 15.1.intreated by any man, he tells us it would be by him or Moses standing to intercede before him: did yet in an instance that would have drawn him into the hazard of his life, dispute Gods command when he should have performed it, and question where in duty it became him to obey. For when God bid him go and anoint David King, which service was sure to draw upon him the cruel and implacable hatred of Saul, through the sudden force of that frightful thought, instead of obeying, he answers again, saying, How can I go? for if Saul hear of it, he will kill me, 1 Sam. 16.1 2. And a like instance we have of Moses's infirmity, when God was for sending him upon an Errand as hazardous, and much more difficult, viz. his deliverance of the poor oppressed Israelites from the cruel Bondage of the powerful Egyptians, Exod. Chap. 3, and 4.
And Paul and Barnabas, two great Apostles, and most eminently pious Servants of Jesus Christ, in the bitterness of dispute and iforeign.heat of quarrel are so hasty and unadvised, as, through the sudden resentment of that contest, to separate companies and part asunder, Act. 15.37, 38, 39.
And since these slips of inconsideration, through a sudden Grief, Fear, or Anger, were incident to the most perfect Saints, and the most assured Favourites and Heirs of Heaven; 'tis plain, that they are a fit matter of Gods mercy, and will be graciously born with and forgiven, but not severely punished by him.
As for our slips of inadvertence then, and inconsiderate transgressions, whether we are inconsiderate through surprize, or weariness, or discomposure of our thinking Faculties, they are such innocently involuntary sins as shall not at the last Day be charged upon us; they do not unsaint a man, or destroy a state of Salvation; but consist with it.
But to prevent mens false confidences of pardon, and groundless hopes of being excused upon this head; I think fit to subjoyn these Cautions about inconsiderate sins.
1. No sin is innocently inconsiderate where we have time, and our understandings being undisturbed, are able to make use of it.
If we have Time to think, but our minds are troubled and distempered, which makes them unfit to think and consider in it, as it happens in the cases of a great weariness, and a violent sudden passion mentioned above; there, 'tis true, we have no choice, because we have not all that is necessary to consideration. But if we have ability and power as well as time and leisure, our thoughts are at our own choice, and if we transgress inconsiderately, the fault is our own; for we might have helped it if we would, and if we will not, we must answer for it.
2. No sin is innocently inconsiderate which is of a mischievous nature, and greatly criminal. For if a man has not brought himself into a habit of sin, and under a great hardness of heart (which is always his own fault, and subjects him to a most dreadful punishment) his own Soul must needs give back, and his Conscience boggle at every great offence; and where he doubts and demurs, he cannot say he is rash and inconsiderate. No man therefore can be guilty of an act of Idolatry, Blasphemy, Perjury, Sacriledge, Adultery, Murder, Sedition, Rebellion, Theft, Slander, or any other of those sins which are so great a Terror even to Natural Conscience; and yet say he wist it not, and ventured on them when he did not think of it. For if his Conscience had any thing of that tenderness, which it should and would have, unless he has sinned it into numbness and stupefaction, he could not commit any of these without checks of mind, nor ever come to be guilty of them without fears and doubtings, disputes and conflicts in his own soul. He must consider them over and over, and view them on one side and on the other, before he can be able to master his own fears, and work himself into courage sufficient to venture on them.
As for lesser sins indeed, a mans Conscience has not so quick a sense, nor so great a dread of them; and therefore he may be surprized sometimes into the commission of them before he considers of them. A good man may speak a rash word, and be carelesly angry, or triflingly peevish, through surprize and suddenness; but he cannot contrive the death of his neighbour, or stab a man to the heart, without fear and consideration. He may be insnared unawares into a wanton eye, or a lascivous thought; but he cannot fall into an act of fornication and adultery, till he might look about him, and should bethink himself. He may rashly and unadvisedly be guilty of an uncharitable censure, of a surly behaviour, of a discourteous, uncondescensive, uncandid action: but he cannot slander his neighbour, or entertain malice, wrath, and implacable enmity against him, without deliberation, unless it be his own fault that he will not deliberate, and consider of them. He may run before he bethinks himself into a covetous wish, but not into fraud and circumvention, into theft and robbery, into perfidiousness and oppression: and the like is observable in other instances. These lesser sins, which are acted in more haste, and need less deliberation, because mens consciences are less sensible and afraid of them, men may, and very often do commit inconsiderately and unadvisedly; they are surprized into them before they bethinks themselves, and consider of them.
But then as for greater sins, which either imply thought and contrivance, or require time and leisure, or, for the heinousness of their guilt, are frightful unto conscience; we can have no excuse of inconsideration when we fall under them. Some, I say, imply thought and contrivance, as fraud and circumvention; others require time, and a long stay upon the very commission of them, as rapes and adulteries, thefts and robberies, drunkenness and revellings, wrath, anger, and malice; and all of them are frightful and terrifying to any honest, and truly tender Conscience. And when we think and contrive for them, or dwell long upon them, or are frighted with them, and put into doubts and disputes, fears and demurs about them; it is gross non-sence and absurd contradiction to say that we did we wist not what, and committed them when we could not consider of them. So that as for any sin which is of a mischievous nature, or greatly criminal, unless it be our own fault, and we have made our Consciences hard and callous, we cannot venture on it without considering it, because we cannot act it without checks and fears of Conscience about it.
3. No sin is innocently and involuntarily inconsiderate, which we do not endeavour and strive against. To endeavour against all sin is in our own power, and at our own choice, although it be not perfectly to overcome it and get free from it. For our endeavours are our own, and are either put forth, or omitted at our own pleasure; so that it is only because we would have it so if they are wanting. And therefore if we are inconsiderate because we refused, and wilfully neglected to prevent it; our inconsideration enters upon our own choice, and is so far owing to our own will. For we were willing to come under it, and would not strive against it; and so far as it was willed by us, it may be charged upon us, and imputed to condemn us.
Let no man therefore indulge himself in an inconsiderateness of sinning, and take no pains against it, but quietly submit to it, out of a fond conceit of being excused upon his inconsideration. For if he make no opposition to his inconsiderateness, but carelesly lays himself open to it, and idly waits for it; he makes it cease to be wholly his infirmity, and in some measure to become his fault. Because it is so far an effect of his own will, as it is of his wilful negligence; and as he wills it, he shall not be excused, but put to answer and account for it.
But if any man expect to have his inconsiderate slips excused as involuntary and innocent, he must not indulge to them, or quietly wait for them, but seriously endeavour and strive against them. 'Tis true indeed, he cannot resolve against all, because he cannot live free from all; and what a man cannot perform, it is downright folly and gross absurdity to resolve upon the performance of. No man in his wits resolves to be as wise as Solomon, to support a Mill-stone by his own strength, or to destroy a vast Army by his single valour. For since these things cannot be done by him, if he understands what he doth, he cannot resolve to do them. And therefore as for the being wholly freed from all infirmity, and never falling by inconsideration; it is utterly absurd for any man to resolve upon it, because no man can ever attain unto it. But although we cannot resolve against all inconsiderate slips, yet can we endeavour to get quit of them, and strive against them. For we may endeavour to do what is not to be done; and do as much of it as we can, although we are not able to do it all. Saint Paul himself endeavoured, and exhorts all others who were perfect to such acceptable degrees as he was, to endeavour with him after a state of absolute perfection, although none of them all would ever be able in this life to arrive to it, Phil. 3.14, 15. They could not resolve upon it indeed, because they could not compass it; but they could and ought to endeavour after it, and to attain so far as they had power, when they could not so far as they desired. And after that rate must we strive against all inconsiderate transgressions also. For although we shall never get wholly free from them, yet still must we take pains against them; but if they seize upon us through a neglect of our own endeavours, they seize upon us through our own will; and then they are unfit to be judged involuntary.
4. No sin is innocently and involuntarily inconsiderate, except we are sorry after we have committed it, and beg Gods pardon for it. When thou art reproved for thy rash and unadvised miscarriages, says the wise Son of Sirach, shew repentance; and so shalt thou escape the guilt of wilful sin, Ec…lus. 20.3. Aristotle has long since observed, That ignorance it self doth not render an action involuntary, unless we are troubled at it afterwards when we come to understand it. For mforeign. Arist Ethic. ad Nicom. l. 3. c. 1.that act of ignorance only is involuntary, says he, which we afterwards with grief repent of. When we come to know that evil which we ignorantly committed, we must have an indignation at it, and beg Gods forgiveness of it; and then both our inconsideration, and ignorance may be judged involuntary and innocent; but without that in reason they cannot. For if our wills are not displeased with our offence, when once we come to discern our selves guilty of it, nor seek, by begging Gods pardon, as far as may be to undo it; it is manifest that really they were not against it. They did not chuse it, 'tis true, when it was acted, because then they were not made to see it; but afterwards they make it their own as much as may be, by showing how readily they are bent and enclined for it. They are not at all sorry for it, nor repent of it, but take a pleasure and delight in it; and what can any Body judge from thence, but that they avow it.
If therefore we would have it thought that our ignorance and inconsideration was at any time against our wills, we must evidence that by showing how much we are troubled, and displeased with it. Our wills must express their dislike of it, and utterly disclaim and renounce it; or else it will readily be inferred that they either had, or would have had a hand in it.
After all these marks whereby to judge of an innocently, and involuntarily inconsiderate sin; I presume I have no need to adde that it must be such as is unobserved when we venture on it. For if we see and observe it, it is not possible that it should be any longer inconsiderate. And therefore no man may look upon his sin, and say, Is it not a little one, and yet after that venture to commit it with a confidence of being excused for it. For no known and wilful sin is little in Gods account, whatsoever it be in ours, but every offence with open eyes, and with a convinced Conscience, is deadly and damning. The man that presumed wilfully and willingly to carry a burthen of Sticks upon the Sabbath Day, under the Law of Moses, was nNumb. 15.36.struck dead as surely as he would have been for going to plough, or trading at the market. Although this seem to be a little instance, yet was it no small offence; for be the matter that a man disobeys in what it will, yet a contempt of God, and a wilful rejecting of his Law, can in no case be little. And therefore if at any time we see and observe a sin, we must by all means avoid it; or else our willing offence will certainly subject us to the curse, and prove of a size sufficient to condemn us.
And these are such Conditions as are necessary to make our inconsiderate slips involuntary and innocent. And therefore as ever we expect that the forementioned inadvertencies should excuse us, we must take care that they have all these requisites. We must never be guilty of them where we have time and understanding, nor in any great and mischievous sin, nor without a serious endeavour against them before, and a sorrowful repentance and desire of pardon after we have committed them. All these must concur in us before our inconsiderateness excuse our sin, and rescue us from danger of Damnation.
And now I have gone through both the Particulars of our involuntary, because unknown sins, whether their involuntariness proceeds from ignorance, or inconsideration; neither of which shall be rigorously dealt with, or imputed to us for our Condemnation.
And thus at last we see, what in the beginning of this Book I proposed to inquire of; viz. what are the mitigations of that integrity of obedience which is the Gospel-condition of happiness, and what are those defects; which it bears and dispenses with. And the result of all is this: That the integrity of obedience, which the Gospel indispensably exacts of us, is an integrity of our chosen actions. And therefore if wittingly and wilfully we transgress any one Commandment, we are under the Curse which the Gospel threatens; but if we transgress several unwittingly and against our wills, we are out of the reach of it, and intire in Gods account still. We do not lose our integrity, or break the condition by every slip of ignorance, whether that whereof we are ignorant be some Law that forbids any sin, or our present actions being forbid by it: nor by every slip of inconsideration, whether our inconsiderateness proceed from suddenness or surprize, from weariness, or from the discomposure and disturbance of our thinking Faculties. For not any of these Failings will deprive us of that, which Christs Gospel will construe to be a perfect and intire obedience; they do not destroy a state of Grace and Salvation, but consist with it.
And all these allowances the Gospel makes to our sinful actions; besides some others to our thoughts and oSee Book 5. Chap. 4.desires, which are sin only in an imperfect birth, and not yet arrived to the guilt of a compleat transgression; as I shall have a fit occasion to show in answering of those groundless doubts and scruples, that perplex good and honest, but weak minds, which shall hereafter follow.
But the great Condition of the Gospel being nothing less than an intire Obedience; and the generality of men being so maimed and defective in obeying: what shall become of them? For who is there but at one time, or other, has willingly transgressed some of those Laws which I have described; and therefore if the Curse take place upon every wilful offence, then wo be to all Mankind.
And so indeed it would, if Christ had not taken pity on us, and come into the World for this very purpose, that he might succour and relieve us. But the very end of his coming amongst us, was to find out a remedy for all these evils. He came to rescue us from the Curse of the Law, and to procure for us new Terms, and put us into a capacity of Pardon. So that whatsoever his Laws threaten, or whatsoever we have committed; yet are we still secure from suffering, if we make use of his remedy, i. e. if we repent of it; as shall appear in the next Book.